Caolionn O'Connell

Bomb Busters for Science

The best abstract ever:

We discuss the possibility of utilizing the ultra-high energy neutrino beam (~ 1000 TeV) to detect and destroy the nuclear bombs wherever they are and whoever possess them.

I think as far as all possible abstract techniques, this is the way one should go. Grab your audience immediately, include something vaguely technical (TeV) and mention nuclear bombs so you can get lots and lots of defense money. You might think this abstract is a lot of hooey, and you really wouldn't be wrong, but it originates from a real paper published in 2003, titled Destruction of Nuclear Bombs Using Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Beam.

My favorite line: "We believe the only way this machine may be built when all the countries on earth agree ... by creating an organization which may be called the 'World Government' for which this device becomes the means of enforcement." Brilliant, simply brilliant! What is actually interesting in this paper is the recommended first step in researching this technology, which may take "an order of a century to achieve."

(1) First, we should construct a neutrino factory which could have substantially lower energy than even 1 TeV. The purpose is to fully understand the properties of the neutrino including mass, mixing angles, CP violating phase, Majorana property and the interactions with other particles.

Translation: We will promise the moon, if you just let is do some interesting basic physics.

This paper was mentioned over lunch as an example of the extremes scientists will go to for funding. I thought it was a joke, but after reading the paper, it seems they wrote it in earnest. Is this what we have been reduced to? Must we whore ourselves for defense money in order to get funding for basic science research? Granted neutrino projects have become "popular" and seem to have secure funding for the time being, but perhaps they could pull the "nuclear-bomb-sniffer" card when things get a little iffy. We need to start thinking outside the research box into more military-based scientific applications. It would certainly be more lucrative than a bake sale.

Really Tall

My nephew, Dominic, is 3 years old. He turns 4 in August. He is at an age where he is a sponge for all information, but he gets a little bored when I accurately answer his bizarre questions. So instead of giving the correct explanation for the origins thunder, I have started to make sh*t up. He's not my kid, so any long-term scarring from my imaginative answers will be blamed on his parents. Not to mention, he's much more entertained about giants running into each other than the difference in speed between light and sound.

When Sam (known as "Uncle Sam") and I were in L.A. last, Dominic was curious about why Uncle Sam was so tall. Sam is 6'3" and, well, Dominic is 3 - so Sam looks REALLY tall. We told him that Uncle Sam hangs upside down like a bat every night and that this stretches him to be taller. Dominic loved this and his eyes got all big in wonder, "Really?!" Apparently, this left an imprint on my nephew. My sister called me after their last parent-teacher conference and said Dominic made a picture of Uncle Sam. I was worried that he told his teacher about Sam being a bat at night, but Dominic seems to be more mesmerized with him being tall rather than a bat. She sent me the picture and thankfully Uncle Sam was labeled, cause I'm afraid his neo-modernist crayon drawing was a mystery to me. My sister says the really straight line is quite the accomplishment for him. When you are only 3, such things are an accomplishment. I'm jealous.

D'oh!

Apparently, I am the only person who doesn't know this, but it seems when you sign up for a paper at a conference you implicitly sign up for a poster as well. How did I miss this? How does everyone else seem to know this but neglect to mention it to me? Crap! To add insult to injury, the paper is due BEFORE the conference. If physicists are known for anything, it is the desire to sleep in and severe procrastination. This is a well-known fact. With that in mind, why on earth do they start morning sessions at 8am and require papers to be due before the conference? Why, damn it?! Maybe they're just guidelines and not actual requirements. Yeah, maybe that's it ...

Q & A

Sometimes, though not often, I actually talk about science. I have gotten excellent questions from readers, but I have generally answered them in the comment section. Since I figure most people aren't reading the comments, I thought I would consolidate some of the questions here. I am also preoccupied with editing chapter 4, so forgive a little re-hashing.

For a plasma wakefield refresher see acceleration basics, plasma wakefield basics and my thesis basics.

Q: Energy. Everyone keeps asking about energy. Basically, does this experiment obey the laws of physics and conserve energy? Provided we are not crackpot scientists and, in fact, conserve energy, how do we do that?

A: We are not crackpots. Odd, maybe, but not crackpots. Our experiment fully obeys the laws and regulations set forth in the universe. The system is a transformer. Yes, I say this every time, but, well, it's a damn transformer. The head particles lose energy such that the tail particles can gain energy. The way the energy is transferred is through the plasma wake. Some energy might be dissipated into the plasma, so it won't be a perfect 100% transfer, but you get the idea.

Q: At this point, people ask why the tail particles don't crash into the now less energetic head particles.

A: We are working with ultra-relativistic particles (28.5 GeV - if that means anything to you). Basically, the electrons in the bunch are going the speed of light. So when the head particle lose energy and tail particles gain energy, they are still basically going the speed of light. So there is no concern that the head particles will stop and tail particles crash into them.

Q: What is going on with the plasma ions and electrons?

A: The ions don't move on the time scale that the beam passes through the plasma, so they are not part of the wake. The wake is only composed of electrons from the ionized plasma. Having the ions stationary means they exert a nice focusing force on the electron bunch (also very good). The electrons in the wake all land behind the electron bunch, so there is a huge density spike on axis behind the bunch (sorry, that blue shaded region is supposed to be A LOT of plasma electrons, not ions, which I now realize it looks like). The density spike then administers the "kick in the ass".

Q: What is the maximum energy gain and what is the limit?

A: The maximum wave we can get is called the wave-breaking field. This maximum wave determines the energy *gradient* not gain. In other words, the limit on how large the plasma wake can get. The wave-breaking field is given by the following formula:

E_peak [V/m] = 96*sqrt(n_p[cm^-3])
where n_p is the density of the plasma. For a plasma with density 10^17 cm^-3, the maximum acceleration gradient is 30 GeV/m. The maximum amount of energy gained by the particles is then 30 GeV/m * (length of the plasma).

Q: Are you a proof-of-principle experiment?

A: Yes. We have gotten excellent results (hopefully to be published soon), so the experiment is progressing a little bit into more "are-you-practical?" type questions. This is still unclear, however, optimism remains high.

Q: What's your efficiency?

A: A good question, but one I hate. Mostly because we do not have a good answer. First and foremost, we are a proof-of-principle experiment, so proving good efficiency is a bit beyond our call at the moment. That's the cheap answer; the real answer is we basically don't know. We work with short bunches (~ 25 microns) and there doesn't exist a diagnostic which can time-resolve something that short. We know we lose a lot of energy in many particle and we know we gain a lot of energy in a few particles. We have a lower limit in knowing how many particles have gained energy, but we don't know the true amount. The not-knowing leaves us in a tough position to properly answer the efficiency question.

Q: Is it scalable for use on the International Linear Collider (ILC) if it is built with the cold design (superconductivity)?

A: I have no clue, but this question has been briefly looked at in advanced accelerator workshops. No solid results except that we have potential.

Q: Do any of your colleagues feel that the selection of the German approach (the cold design) was primarily a political decision, especially in light of the continuing quagmire over the ITER site?

A: Disclaimer: I do not work on the ILC, I have absolutely no knowledge about the inner workings on the technology decision for ILC, also I am not a particle physicist and I am in some weird branch of advanced accelerator physics, so I think we can all assume where my interests lie. With that large grain of salt in mind, I have had discussions with people on the subject. The most succinct commentary on the decision I heard: "They chose intensity over energy." As for the political ramifications of such a decision, I do not know. I do think that high energy physics community has realized that in order for the ILC to be built, the community needs to be supportive of any decision made. The moment there are internal fractures, it becomes too easy for the government not to support it financially. Whether they execute the cooperation fully will remain to be seen.

Okay, I think that is way too much science for one day. Any more questions, bring it on. I promise to answer them in time, which is heavily dependent on how much I want to avoid the responsibilities of the thesis writing.

Close Encounter

Generally I don't like (read: fear) animals unless they are domesticated. Although I enjoy seeing them in a zoo or observing them from my car, I would rather not have encounters without any sort of barrier between me and the animal. Part of this is due to my ignorance and part of it is due to past experience. This included a rather unfortunate incident with a goose. Thinking that geese must be nice, I learned a life lesson to the contrary and now believe all fowl must be evil incarnate.

With that background in mind, I went for a hike up at the Windy Hill Preserve. As I was turning around a bend, I came upon two wild turkeys. Since I am always thinking of my readers, I took out my camera and went in for a picture. Apparently I crossed some invisible boundary because one of the turkeys put his feathers up and started to come at me. This was definitely a gesture of great displeasure rather than greeting, so I did the only honorable thing – I darted back around the bend to hide. Since I was stuck on the trail until they moved on, I tried whistling loudly as a "shoo!" technique. In response to every one of my whistles, they gobbled replies back at me (perhaps they are not as wild as I thought). They were now camouflaged in the trees, but I was able to circumnavigate their location based on the direction of their gobbles. Thankfully, I made it past them without having another goose incident.

As I was unable to take pictures, here is my recreation of the scene (see the turkey and the chicken):

My Pyramid.

In the interest of avoiding my responsibilities, I have begun a downward spiral of wasting time. First, I mulled over the variety of photo options offered by both Shutterfly and Kodak Gallery (formally known as Ofoto). Shutterfly wins hands down, as I challenge you to figure out how to get a matte photo with white borders on Ofoto. Then I progressed to reading every frickin article on the New York Times website, which lead to a couple conclusions. First, I used to think David Brooks was a Republican I could tolerate, that no longer seems to be the case. And second, I have learned that I should be eating 7 ounces of grains, half of which should be whole.

The U.S. government just came out with a new and personalized food pyramid. After receiving my personalized pyramid, I was about to start bitching about portion size (find me a normal person who knows how many ounces constitute one slice of bread). Then I discovered that they anticipated such ignorance and even give pictures:

1 slice of Whole Wheat Bread == 1 ounce of whole grains.

But let it be known that 1 Kaiser Roll == 2.5 ounces of refined grains. (A kaiser roll is nicht so gut.)

Regardless, I think my consumption of diet coke, grilled cheese sandwiches and candy bars isn't really going to make the healthy list. And until the vending machine starts selling whole-wheat crackers and raisins, it's not looking like my diet is going to change any time soon. But that seems to be okay, because according to another NYT article, a little bit heft may be helpful.

Not So Bad.

All has been quiet because I have been working. Working a lot. I am trying to fix/improve/finish my Chapter 4 before my boss returns from the APS meeting in Florida. I have to say I am pretty proud of myself; I have cranked out 12 pages in about a week. I will not debate the quality of those 12 pages because, at this point, I more happy that I have some tangible measure of "progress" than actually producing good work.

I thought that, with a little more than a month, completing two chapters was going to be tough. It seemed like a normal reaction to me that I would be entering a stressful phase. I thought that way until dinner last night. Sam has been out of town for work for almost 3 weeks and just returned Monday night. To celebrate his return, we had dinner at his place with his roommates and some friends. One of the people at dinner is defending his thesis a week before I do. Excited to have found someone in a similar situation, I asked how the writing was going. His response: "I have an outline written for six chapters and one chapter kinda done."

I don't think I am feeling so bad now.

Caught.

I've been outed. I'm afraid I haven't been following the rules laid out by Peter in another QD blog entry. In particular I failed at rule #4, since I have never mentioned this blog to my boss nor to my coworkers. Why have I been so secretive? I genuinely thought QD was going to be completely unpopular and no one was going to read it. I mean, please, a blog about the lives of physicists?! So I thought I could keep the blog as more of a journal for myself, rather than have people actually read it. See ... no reason to share it, if nobody knows about it.

Then the Symmetry article came out. Granted the article is good publicity for our experiment, but it makes me cringe a little bit. Although it's good at explaining the physics, the language glosses over the group aspect of this experiment (which is a collaboration of SLAC, USC and UCLA). Instead there is language like "O'Connell envisions ..." O'Connell doesn't do s**t but take data and write a thesis to graduate. There are much more qualified individuals envisioning the future than me and, unfortunately, that isn't made very clear.

So some serious razzing has come my way as a result of this article, which caused an unnamed person's googling me and sharing it with a coworker, which finally concluded with that coworker outing me. This is not the scenario I wanted. Now I just hope I can avoid the "Chapter not ready, were you spending too much time blogging?" comments.

Clock Watching

This is what I have been doing every night for the last five nights. Staring at the clock. Praying for sleep to come but always alluding me. Instead of sleep, the moment my head hits the pillow, my mind has been swirling with all the things I need to do. First, I chronicle the tasks I want to accomplish, in decreasing order of importance. Then, I try to estimate how much time I need to finish each of the tasks and who I can harass to help me finish them faster. When I have exhausted the list, I then begin composing sentences. That's right, I start discussing physics with myself ... at two in the morning. How to best explain the field ionization of other gases being suitably vague so I don't have to do too much work, but still acceptable enough to relay the point, etc. etc. etc. Once I actually come up with a good sentence, I then agonize if I should get up and write them damn thing or stay in bed and hope I will fall asleep right now but still wake up tomorrow morning remembering my exact word choice.

Oh joy, only 52 more days of this.

Keep the Sunshine On

So this is the problem: America has an awful lot of people but we don't have enough energy resources to sustain this population growth without efforts at conservation. For some strange reason many Americans seem to be allergic to the word "conservation" as they often tend to associate it with "deprivation." True, we could legislate efficiency standards for home appliances, but that wouldn't be nearly as easy as drilling in Alaska.

However, it seems that someone actually came up with a clever plan. A plan that doesn't use those pesky words ("conservation" or "efficiency"), therefore, it actually has the potential to be passed. Granted, there are many other items on the table which might make it fail, but Congressman Upton (R-MI) added an amendment to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which would extend Day Light Savings Time by two months. DST would start one month early in March and end one month later in November. The idea being people usually sleep in the early morning (myself included) rather than turning on lights and consuming electricity, whereas people tend to do those things after work when it is dark out. By extending sunlight until later, people's consumption of electricity when they get home would be reduced - indirectly helping conservation efforts. Honestly, I'm just in for the two extra months of sunlight after work. I could really dig that.

Etiquette

I used to think my sister was nuts when referencing Miss Manners on correct form at the dinner table. I will admit, I have been known to belch at the dinner table, much to the disgust of my sister. Although I lack table manners, I am very good at saying "please," "thank you," and "excuse me" and find those who don't exceedingly rude. But there is another arena of etiquette where I excel - Logbook Etiquette. Logbook etiquette is the most overlooked of all etiquette forms, but I would venture to state it is probably the most important. Many collaborators merely use the logbook to keep track of various notes - this magnet broke at this time, we changed this beam parameter, etc. But often they are not systematic at documenting changes and, the worst offense, they scrawl it in completely unintelligible handwriting. The latter offense finally propelled me to install an electronic logbook for our collaboration (with the help of some physicists from DESY in Germany, who designed the format).

I, on the other hand, am meticulous at keeping track of all the variables: who was present at time of data-taking and all steps executed to achieve results or failure. Everything I write is in the interest of preserving knowledge. Having just spent 4 hours today going through our old electronic logbook entries, I am sad to say not all my collaborators have the same sense of etiquette and it is driving me nuts. Is it so hard to write down what gas was in the gas cell? Is it really too difficult to write a title for a graph that was printed so I can find it again easily using the search function? Also asking "anonymous" (our default author) is not very helpful when I have a question about an entry. Arghh, these offenders are not really helping my stress levels.

The mouse mascot was in honor of a mouse that infiltrated our trailer and proceeded to sample our stash of food. Thankfully, it looks like he has moved on to greener and more calorific pastures, but we kept him as an e-log mascot, nonetheless.

Bad TV

In bed sick with cable television, preferably with HBO and the like, not too bad. In bed sick with cable television, which consists of basic channels, C-SPAN and the Hallmark Channel, pretty miserable. My cold took a turn for the worse and I am now on day two in bed. I have slim Netflix pickings, so I was forced to watch shows like Regis and Kelly (it remains unclear if I like her or loathe her), Magnum P.I., a variety of court-based television and what I believe might be the worst game show in the history of man, Street Smarts. They even have a website, should you be interested in reading more about the worst game show ever. Out of sheer boredom, I felt compelled, but then my sanity returned and I choose to watch Days of our Lives instead.

I never thought I would say this, but I really, really want to be better so I can go back to work or at least some lucidity to work on my thesis in bed. I really can't handle another episode of Jerry Springer.

Rising Panic.

Because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided to count how many days until my thesis defense. 58. I would like to point out that 58 is a number less 60. This means, in less than two months, I will need to defend a thesis, which, as of now, is still two chapters shy of completion. Since I am incapable of doing anything half-assed, I felt further compelled to subtract my non-productive days. 5 days in Knoxville, TN for the Particle Accelerator Conference (with a hopeful side trip to Dollywood), 2 days in Las Vegas for a bachelorette party (really more like 3, since I should give an extra day for recovery) and 4 days in Georgia for a wedding. This reduces my already paltry 58 down to 46/47, depending on the count. I am heading out of the "less than two months" territory into a much less comfortable "month and a half" region. I think the word of the day is: CONCERN which might soon be followed by FREAKING-OUT.

Then just to add insult to injury, I have come down with a rather vicious cold. A hacking cough, a runny nose (which is now sore from extensive blowing) and a very husky voice (actually more sexy/cool than irritating). My high hopes for a very productive week might be foiled by cooties, if I don't recover promptly. Getting concerned, very concerned.

Photo Album.

Since USB ports were nonexistent in the internet cafes I visited, I didn't have a chance to post pictures from my trip. Thankfully, my memory sticks made it back to the States without a hitch and safely onto my computer, so now I will assume the role of the recently returned and bore everyone to death with my pictures. I have restrained myself to limit the amount of picture I display in hopes that it gives a good feel of the trip without being excessive. Should you absolutely hate those people who feel the need to share their vacation photos, please don't read any further.

New favorite airline: Iberia. This picture is of in-flight screen showing the view of the plane from the tail camera. How cool is that? Sometimes people are just too, too clever. I have never seen such a thing. If you know of any other airlines who do the same, please share so I can book my future airline tickets accordingly.

I'm afraid there is nowhere left in the world to escape American homogenization. This picture was taken in Cordoba, Spain. McDonalds, more than Burger King, seemed to be the popular choice in Morocco.

I liked this strange juxtaposition of Moroccans loading their donkeys with deliveries of Coke. (Sorry for the grainy shot, I took it from a museum window.)

Selling rugs to tourists seems to be the national pastime of Morocco. Every large store has at least one floor devoted to rugs. They ply you with mint tea and very persistent salesmen (American car dealers have nothing on the rug dealers of Morocco) and I was shocked to see how many people actually purchased them to either ship or schlep back home. Here was just a small selection of the rugs for sell at one shop I visited. The colors and designs were beautiful, but if a laptop was too much for me to carry, there was no way in hell I was going to buy a rug.

Here are a couple shots from Fez. The picture on the left is of rugs hanging outside one shop along a small alley way of the Medina. I wish I had gotten some photos of the alleys, but I was concentrating too hard on not getting lost. Hidden inside the Media is the city's largest tannery, whose process involves pigeon dung. As you can see from the photo on the right, the working conditions are not ideal. After visiting a couple factories, I have a renewed appreciation for unions.

Here is the Fez skyline at night. You might be able to get a sense for why it was my favorite city. Fez is known for their ceramics with cobalt coloring. For the kiln's fire, they burn ground olive pit in addition to wood because the oil in the pits increase the heat of the fire. Consequently, the kilns produce a horrible black smoke cloud which looms over the city; you can see a bit of it along the horizon in the middle of the photo. When visiting the factory, the smoke and smell of burning pits is almost overwhelming. Unbelievably, none of the workers wear masks or any sort filter to protect their lungs.

Of course, this is QD, so I thought I would include a really cheesy Spanish/physics joke. And, no, I didn't buy the T-shirt.

This is my favorite shot. It is taken along one of the alley ways where they focus on food stuffs. Dates, nougats, fruits, vegetables and, of course, meat and poultry. Living in the States, everything is so sanitized for us -- often our fruit comes with a nice waxy sheen and our chicken is wrapped in plastic. It is nice, every once in a while, to be jarred; to leave my comfort zone and get exposure to a country and a lifestyle so different from my own. Lately, our culture has vilified "The Other" and our country is becoming more and more isolationist and inward-looking. In the end, I think we will pay a hefty price for such a myopic view of the world. Learning and experiencing extreme differences teaches us so much more about ourselves, for good and for bad, than the constant sterilized comparisons we make amongst ourselves. And, for me, nothing says "different" like five de-feathered chickens hanging upside down in a food stall somewhere in Morocco.

My Kind of City.

Imagine a generic Moroccan city. Think of tiny little alley ways, each side lined with shops, which only house the shopkeeper and his or her wares. The sun is streaming down in the shape of diamonds, as it penetrates the crosshatched covering placed between the roofs on either side to keep the afternoon sun at bay. The paths are over-run with people -- a population of 40,000 in a space meant for 10,000 (See the intro to the movie Pepe Le Moko; if you lack an imagination). Next to the shops are assistants hawking their goods, offering samples of food or displaying the beauty of their silks. My favorite was one old man sitting in the middle of a shop, no bigger than a standard closet, teeming with 7 foot high piles of antique pots, lanterns and lamps. If ever there existed the djinni lamp which Alladin found, I think he purchased it from this exact shop. You can add more details if you like, romanticize it or add the seedier elements. Whatever picture you have in your head, it is probably not too different than the medina in Fez. If ever there was a reason to visit Morocco, seeing Fez alone would be it.  In Fez, I have now found my reason for returning to Morocco.

Snapshots

Since I am unable to post pictures, use your imagination:

A mosque framed in the distance by a loading dock's crane.  The smell of spices lined up in jars along a wall.  Small monkeys on chain leashes and in cages for pictures with tourists.  Arches so intricately carved, it is a marvel of artistic design.  Children waving.  A mother completely veiled and in traditional clothing standing and talking with her twenty-something daughter in blue jeans and no head scarf.  The smell of diesel fuel.  Hearing Arabic, French, Spanish and English from all different directions.  Groups of men (and only men) sitting in cafes animatedly talking.  McDonalds.  Snake Charmers.  The asking of alms.  The most beautiful script in the world - Arabic - written everywhere.  Decayed elegance.

Can You Spot the Sucker?

Well apparently everyone in Marrakech can and that sucker would be me.  We have now been in Morocco for two days.  The first day, we went to Marrakech, where I paid way too much for a variety of things, and today we toured Casablanca, where I avoided entering all the shops.

The custom in Morocco is to bargain, whether it is for a fabulous scarf or for a ride in the city, the price is negotiable.  I am sure this is a great system, provided you are skilled in the art of bargaining, but the problem is that I suffer from an embarassment of riches.  I come from a country where we are willing to pay large sums of money for frivolous items, so I feel guilty arguing over the price of an object which is already cheaper compared to the same at home.  But I am stuck between the angst of not wanting to be the sucker and not wanting to be the insulting American in my pathetic attempts at bargaining.  I am failing miserably at the process and more often than not landing on the sucker side of things.

... But I did get a very nice scarf.